At least that's my estimation in response to the photos that surfaced overnight with claims that they are, in fact, the first public images of the still mythical Apple tablet. Even our friends at Tech Crunch are reluctant to speculate as to the veracity of these images, but that hasn't stopped plenty of folks from believing that they have finally seen the promised land.

Who knows if these are real, but these are easily the most legitimate looking pictures I’ve ever seen of the supposed Apple Tablet/iPad/iSlate/iBook/Whatever It Will Be Called. Further, UI designer Dustin Curtis tells us a friend sent him these pictures — and from what we hear, that friend could work at Apple (he wouldn’t confirm that).

Although the above photo has all the trappings of a set-up ripe for the gullible among us, I tend to land on the side of caution and mostly agree with the conspiracy theorists who speculate that this is merely a nicely Photoshopped characterization of what the real thing will look like.

Still, it might be my favorite mock-up so far, if only because the super-simple slab-like design fits with my idea of what the actual tablet will look like.

At this point, who cares to argue? We'll know soon enough if the "leaked photo" is legit, as Apple will likely unveil the real thing tomorrow in San Francisco. Of course, as one observer put it, we may not even be able to adequately envision all that the tablet will encompass. And it turns out that this has become a widely held view, particularly in the wake of Steve Jobs "prophetic" comments in Apple's earnings announcement yesterday.

"The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

wtf are you people completely blind? I mean I saw in 2 seconds the image of the tablet is computer generated. It's so easy to see.

I believe everyone before you posted said it was a fake ^__^ sooooo whose blind? (unless of course you were referring to the OP, then disregard this....but still i'd prepare for a **** storm of iTablet rumors today)

this really is real i took the pics myself for 1000$ a second ill let you play with it send your money to my paypal and ill drive it to your house!!!

who cares if its fake its one sexy tablet.

Yeah, you'll be the coolest person in the room when you pull one out and show it around, but that gets old fast when three other people have them and one person somehow has one that glows in the dark.John C. DvorakThe American columnist and broadcaster in article 'Rethinking the iPhone' in PC Magazine.

Ha, they removed my post. Pussies. It's not easy being right all the time, let me tell you. I guess more "news" than rumors, speculation and carrier BS is too much to ask for from "the leading iPhone site". I'm done. I'll just search on Google News from now on. :/

EDIT: Even better, just like MacRumors, we might as well change the name here to iPhoneRumors since the focus is not even anywhere near modding anymore. What a downfall.